Marth matchup
Playing this matchup as Ike is a test on your spacing skills. Not only Marth has faster and comparably long ranged attacks but also his is more mobile in both air and ground. Basically, this matchup plays as both characters trying to zone each other: Marth should be zooning Ike at his tipper range while Ike should be aiming for either being closer or farther than that.
At Marth’s tipper range Ike can’t respond to anything Marth throws at him as the jab won’t reach and any other attack will have too much lag, so the Ike player should be patient and defend himself against the Fairs and Dancing Blades before resuming the approach or retreat.
At close (boxing) range Ike still finds some resistance such as Dtilt, grab and Dolphin Slash. The two fist options are quick and have decent range, but both of them are overwhelmed by Ike’s jab, the third one can punish badly executed jab canceling with powerful knockback. Still, if the Ike player jab cancels accordingly, he can avoid or even bait the DS for further punishment. If the Marth player is playing safely then he should prefer responding out of shield, so grabbing Marth is an definitely an alternative and can lead to the Bthrow -> Dash attack combo at mid to high percentages (I need more precise confirmation on which percentages this combo works).
Further away form Marth and his tipper range is the range of aerials such as Ike’s Fair and Bair. Much differently from other matchups though, the range of Ike’s aerials does not outrange those of Marth by much, Ike is much more susceptible for being punished by poorly spaced aerials. Because of that, aerial approaches require much more accurate use here than in many other matchups.
As for recovery, Marth is at advantage, mainly because he does it more safely than Ike. Marth has superior horizontal aerial movement and can stall his fall with DB1 in order to mess up with the opponent edge guard or juggle attempts. His weakness lies in his lightweight, vulnerability from below while in the air and lack of options when recovering from the ledge of the stage*. For that reason, it is recommended that the Ike player to focus on KO’ing Marth without risking leaving the stage. Be careful with your choice of KO move, as Marth can counter it.
And going off-stage is certainly something the Ike player should avoid, as Marth is an authoritative juggler and ledgeguarder himself. He can perform a ledgehop counter to prevent Ike from grabbing the ledge with Aether. If the Ike has DI’ed up he’ll be sent up and close enough from the stage to survive, from there he can use QD to return to the stage. The Marth player will have enough time to grab the Ike and throw him back to the ledge though. Do not attempt to hit Marth with Aether while he is on-stage, or you’ll be sent up if he counters it (assuming you’ve DI’ed correctly) and will have to defend yourself against Marth’s powerful aerials, probably without any jumps left.
By the other hand, Marth has some issues with finishing Ike while-on stage. All of his smashes need to sweetspot in order to kill at viable percentages and all have a long ending lag.
Summary:
While this fight plays close to neutrality while on-stage, off-stage it does not. The Ike player needs to avoid being pushed to the edge of the stage in order to win. I evaluate this matchup as an 60:40 advantage to Marth, for his capacity for pushing Ike off-stage and dealing great portions of damage, or flat-out killing, out of that.
*: Read the following thread written by Steel 2nd for more information over Math options by the ledge: [
LINK];
